There is an addiction as toxic as the 7,000 chemicals and nearly 70 carcinogens found in cigarette smoke. Something as lethal as the arsenic, cadmium, lead and vinyl chloride inhaled with every puff. It is killing Californians even though it is easily preventable — the flow of big bucks from tobacco companies into the wallets of political candidates.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) recently released its annual How Do You Measure Up? — a geographical scorecard outlining how each state in the U.S. is doing in the fight against cancer. When it comes to California, we are failing miserably in a critical category — tobacco control. In fact, we are far behind the rest of the nation even though this is an area where, only years ago, California was a national leader. This is no surprise to ACS CAN. As the flow of tobacco campaign cash increases into the Golden State, critical steps forward in tobacco policy are sharply receding.

Chalk up California’s abysmal score to the following:

• A tobacco tax that is one of the lowest in the country;

• Funding for smoking prevention education and cessation that is 16 percent of the recommendation by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC); and

• The first, but now among the weakest, smoke-free workplace laws in the nation.

This trend cannot continue. ACS CAN is calling on current officeholders and candidates to turn a cold shoulder to tobacco heavyweights descending on the state Capitol intent on warding off meaningful legislation that could save lives. This summer it launched its Snuff Tobacco Out of California Politics challenge, asking candidates to reject contributions from tobacco companies and their subsidiaries and return to an agenda that promotes public health. Tobacco companies have spent $63 million on campaign contributions and lobbying in California in the past five years. In that time, they have successfully stymied any significant legislation to help people quit tobacco use, prevent youth from starting or protect people from second-hand smoke. The industry of addiction and deception has a stranglehold on the Legislature and it must change.

An estimated 34,000 Californians will die from smoking this year. The annual health care costs to California alone are more than $13 billion a year. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that nearly 13 percent of Californians are smokers and, while that sounds low, keep in mind the state’s population is nearly 40 million. Translated, we are one of the largest markets for cigarettes in the country.

Tobacco users are disproportionately lesser educated and lower-income and often members of racial minorities — making these populations especially vulnerable to both secondhand smoke and to the deceptive marketing tactics of Big Tobacco. Blue collar workers, for example, often cannot escape smoke-filled environments and, an estimated 45 percent of people living in multi-unit housing are exposed to secondhand smoke.

Californians can make a difference through action. Write your representatives. Tell them to “just say no” to tobacco money. Candidates should do their part. Close your wallets to tobacco companies this election season. ACS CAN will take stock of which candidates and legislators have accepted our challenge and we plan to release that information publicly. Absent names will speak volumes.

Willie Goffney, M.D., FACS, is a Long Beach-based surgical oncologist and a volunteer ambassador for the American Cancer Society Action Network. ACS CAN; www.acscan.org.

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